Afternoon business headlines: 6-6-14

Friday, June 06, 2014 2:36 PM

Apple stock to be 'cheap' Monday. Will you buy?

CNNMoney: Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Many consumers use (and love) its products. Yet for average investors, the stock has often been too expensive to touch. Starting on Monday, one share of Apple will go from costing close to $647.50 to about $92.50 -- give or take a few cents. That's because the company is doing what's known as a stock split. It is issuing more shares to existing investors in order to bring down the price of the stock.

Amazon planning to unveil smartphone to vie with Apple's

Bloomberg: Amazon.com Inc. is planning to introduce a smartphone later this month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, plunging the world's largest online retailer deeper into the competitive mobile-device market. Amazon tweeted Wednesday that it was holding an event in Seattle on June 18 hosted by CEO Jeff Bezos for a product unveiling. The post included a picture of a black, thin device with Amazon's name in silver emblazoned on it.

Mary Barra's apology suggests GM won't fight recall lawsuits

Bloomberg Businessweek: Mary Barra of General Motors has done something unusually bold for a chief executive. In a speech to employees on June 5, she gave a full-throated apology for the defect-and-recall disaster. She announced the firing of 15 employees, some of senior rank. And the company said it would soon begin compensating consumers, possibly millions of them, beginning later this summer. Reading between the lines of Barra's presentation, one can reach a further conclusion: GM intends to settle, not fight, pending lawsuits concerning injuries and deaths linked to faulty parts.